Riff On Rachel Maddow's 'Why We Did It' Poem by David McLansky

They grit their teeth
And send our guts
We’re jostled on
The bloody ruts;
Trucked in for Freedom
For Democracy
And now we learn …
What hypocrisy!
In the heat,
On the bone hard soil,
The M16 shaking
The dull recoil
The zippered shots
That tattooed vests
The explosions that
Exposed their chests;
And now we learn
It was all for oil,
Oh gasping breaths,
Oh savage foil!
We were sacrificed
For cheap gasoline;
Dick Cheney’s jaw
Clamped sour and mean;
These hard eyed men
With farsighted vision,
These rich cushioned men
Who make hard decisions;
It didn’t work
We got no oil
Just a pile of legs
Oh bitter spoil!
And blackened eyes,
And broken arms
Oh waving flag
You lose
Your charm.
We fought to keep
Gas prices down.
Oh the horror of
Those desert towns;
Those boring tours
Those sudden rounds
My mind was shattered
On a Fallujah street
An IED
Exploded at my feet,
It burned my face
Popped out my eyes
Oh the deafening roar,
Oh my sergeant's cries;
And you say it was all
Just for cheap gas
I would've nursed the pedal
To make it last;
And I blind and limbless,
A burnt scarred shell
Wish for death
In this burning Hell.